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California communities want more say in compacts

"Representatives of the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties are set to meet with Carl Artman, the assistant secretary of Indian Affairs at Interior, on March 7 when he visits California. These groups are seeking three things local governments aren't currently getting in casino negotiations, said CSAC spokeswoman DeAnn Baker: adequate notice that negotiations are taking place; meaningful consultation in the process; and consent of the community where a casino would be placed.

"...These principles are laid out in a Federal Tribal Lands Policy that CSAC created through its Indian Working Group. This was included in a Dec. 27 letter sent to Artman requesting the meeting from Yolo County Supervisor Mark McGowan. McGowan chairs CSAC's Housing, Land Use and Transportation Committee and is a former head of the Indian Working Group.

"…While gaming compacts have been negotiated between the governor's office and individual sovereign tribes, the federal government can have a say many in many steps along the way. The most obvious power is in granting — or withholding — federal recognition of individual tribes.

"More important to individual casino negotiations in California, however, is the setting of standards for taking land into trust. This is the process by which land outside a reservation can become tribal land, not subject to local government control…"

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